Crews continue to search for two young brothers following their suspected drownings at a provincial park, Manitoba RCMP say.
Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, and Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, were visiting Whiteshell Provincial Park, 130 kilometres east of Winnipeg, over the weekend when the younger brother was swept into the waters of Nutimik Lake. The elder sibling then dove in to try and save his 10-year-old brother, before both were caught in the current, the RCMP said.
On Monday, police said the search is not being treated as a recovery mission.
“We’re still on task out here. Everyone’s still fully engaged,” Lac du Bonnet RCMP Staff Sgt. Cory Meyers told Global News Tuesday. As detachment commander, Meyers said he has been coordinating resources and search efforts.
One crew from the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team (HEART) will use sonar imaging in the search, he said. HEART is a non-profit dedicated to underwater searches and recoveries.
The imaging tool attaches to the back of a boat and maps the bottom of the waterway. The team can use that map to identify any underwater anomalies.
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Meanwhile, boaters and RCMP drones will search the shores, Meyers said.
“With RCMP resources we’re probably about 10 members between the boats and the drones. Our friends from HEART have five in their unit there,” he said.
“From the community, I’m going to estimate, right now, we probably have about 20 folks with four to five boats out there continuously looking at the shoreline.”
Meyers said the family’s gratitude for the ongoing efforts is driving the teams to keep looking.
The search began Saturday afternoon, when police deployed its drones and an underwater recovery team to look for the siblings. HEART was also assisting with the search, the RCMP said in a news release Sunday.
Lynne Stefanchuk, the executive director of Lifesaving Society Manitoba, described the situation as “heartbreaking.”
“Things happen very, very quickly in the water,” she said, adding that water safety is key.
Stefanchuk recommended ensuring everyone is wearing a well-fitted life jacket if an outing is near a body of water.
“Learn to swim. It really does make a difference to make you feel comfortable in the water (and) to give you some key safety skills,” she continued.
Parents of young children should keep their kids within an arm’s reach when near water, and those with older children should ensure they are safe and supervised, Stefanchuk said.
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